hey guys already searched, my left headlight wont go up, like most peoples, but the little **** at the top of the motor spins when it shouldent. even when you turn the parking lights off, it keeps going. any ideas on how i can fix that? thanks.

 

I have extensive knowledge on this issue, redfirebird. Your headlight motor itself is good. Inside your headlight motor assembly, there are 3 plastic gears and 3 plastic brushings that act to space the gears sepeartely and keep it in contact with the metal worm gear that actually retracts and raises the headlight door. Either the plastic gears are worn down, or most of the time, the 3 plastic brushings have crumbled apart. Your motor will keep spinning because until the headlight raises to full extension and there is an increase in power when it reaches full extension and must stop, the motor thinks it hasn't raised the light up yet and will just keep spinning (works both ways, same with retraction, so that's why even the parking light doesn't have an effect). Not a real good way to explain that. Anyhow, there is a guy that sells these plastic brushings, 2 sets of 3 for like $7.00. They look like little plastic cylanders and are very small. If you go on ebay and type in firebird headlight motor, you should be able to find him. It's not a difficult fix, pulling the motors out is the hardest part. If and when you do this, you just need to take the 3 small bolts off the circular (bottom side) part of the motor. You'll see exactly what I'm talking about because your brushings will be a huge crumbled mess inside. Put the new brushings in, and everything will be nice and tight. Re-install the motors and you'll be good to go. My headlights work as good as the day I bought the car now. If your plastic gears are worn, I think he sells those also, but they should be fine. It's worth the trouble because your motors are good. The whole job shouldn't take you more than an hour, probably less. You'll need a box wrench or open ended wrench to get at the bottom headlight motor bolt because the ratchet won't fit that far down. Hope this helps...

 

Yes. Inside the headlight motor unit is a large nylon gear that is driven by the worm gear on the motor shaft. This nylon gear originally contained 3 solid gel bushings that transfer the load from the gear to a 3-lobe cast hub that is part of the actuator shaft. These bushings harden and crumble with age, breaking down to roughly a spoonful of crumbs. At this point the gear will no longer turn the hub to raise and lower the headlight assembly. Instead hub will just free wheel on the gear. I sell two kits (TDS 207280 and TDS 209280) to repair these headlights. 207280 has just the 3 delrin bushings and instructions, 209280 has 6 delirin bushings, gaskets, screws & nuts (in case you snap off yours), synthetic grease and instructions. Both are available from my web site.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

Forget what I said about the ebay guy, buy from Lon! It helps when the seller knows exactly what you need, you can never be disappointed that way! I would also personally recommend getting the kit with the screws because the bolts on the motor assembly itself are very small and very weak. I snapped one off myself when I did this, but had a spare motor to get the screw from.

 

lon does your website take money orders?

 

Yes. Payment options are credit card, (VISA, MC & Discover), PAYPAL and check/MO. Just click on which payment option you prefer upon checkout. I'll confirm your order and let you know when I've received your payment and let you know when the order has shipped.

Lon

 

Hey guys - I'll just add to this thread, if that's ok

I just replaced my driver's side headlight assembly - 1988 Trans Am.

It went well, the old one was cracked in two spots, the newer assy. had a different headlight, so basically I merged the two into one good functional unit. I would have just gotten new gears, but the frame to the driver's side headlight was cracked in two spots, it fell apart when I was taking the motor off.

Prior to me replacing the driver's side - both sides would just spin - bad gears, etc. Now the driver's side is replaced and manually - it moves up and down fine. If it's up and I turn off the headlights, it moves down just fine. However; if it's down and I turn the headlights on - neither light will spin the motor at all.

The connectors seemed to fit just fine also - didn't have to do any splicing, etc.

I seem some mention of issues with the headlight controller - could it work just one way like this? On the '88 TA would it also be back by the master cylinder - and which one is it exactly, there's a buncha of stuff there...

 

You could have the wrong headlight control module on your car. There was a different module for the 87-89 than the 90-2002. The wrong module will have the symptoms you describe. The two modules appear identical externally.

Lon

 

When my headlight transducer (the part you refer to at the firewall) failed, my lights didn't work at all, up or down. But that is just in my case and it is possible that yours could work fine one way and not the other. The transducer is located on the firewall to the left of the brake booster (toward the center of the car). It has a weather connector with 4 wires that plug into it. I believe the wires are green and grey or white. There is a similar looking connecting harness next to it, but that one has 1,000 wires in it. The transducer is really easy to replace, it just slides out, no tools needed. You can find one easy for cheap on any junkyard firebird.

I was about to say what Lon just did. I would think the transducer is good since it worked with your original motor. I was going to ask you what year headlight motor you bought. It may be incompatible, as Lon suggested.

 

Yes - that's a very good chance..

The headlight assemblies were certainly newer. I don't know for sure what they came out of, the guy I bought the car from had them. I know... one of the covers on the headlights had ' Pontiac' etched in it, the headlights themselves are a bit smaller and they were a teal color, which leads me to believe it's '90 or newer, I don't recall a whole lot of Teal cars in the 80's at all..

I would have used the whole assembly, but the connector for the headlight itself was different, so I pulled the headlight 'carrier' from the older assembly and put it into the newer one.

I have another set, obviously from an older bird, but I would have had to splice to use those - there was no reason to not go with the newer one.

If I unplug the newer light, I'm guessing the older one *should* work properly...? The passenger side, at this time, is still the older one.

I guess - with different motors on each side, I may have burnt something out too, possibly or maybe it's just confused...

 

FYI on this - in case someone else happens across this...

After I got *both* newer motors in - the headlights worked just fine without a new controller or anything. At least in this instance it seemed perhaps the problem was an older motor on one side and a newer motor on the other side...

Other than some physical 'issues' I'm having with positioning and the bezels, they are working perfectly now.

I'm still going to order some of those replacement gears at some point - I'm sure these won't last forever.

 

I was wondering if anyone had the schematics for the Transducer, I would like to try and repair mine.